I Wish
by A'isha Ishtar
Summary: Tozokuoh Bakura wishes he has everyone he once loved back. He doesn't think it's actually going to come true. But, someone else hears him... someone who can make that wish a reality...


Summary: Tozokuoh Bakura wishes he had everyone he once loved back. He doesn't think it will actually come true. But when a certain sorceress-in-training overhears the wish, she decides to ask her master for a spell to grants wishes, and she gets it from him. She performs the spell to grant Bakura's wish. What happens now?

Bakura was in an empty marketplace. Normally, the place would be swarming with people. But something else had recently been swarming—most of the villagers there had contracted and died from malaria. The few remaining were too terrified to step outside their houses. The mosquitoes that had spread the epidemic had left town when they could find no more stagnant water, so Bakura wasn't worried about being bitten and getting sick.

Though he _felt_ a little sick at the present time. Not the kind of sick that made him cough and gave him fever, but the kind of sick that made his stomach ache, and not from what he'd eaten earlier. He was thinking about his life back in Kuru Eruna. "Damn it!" he yelled, throwing rocks at a wall in the place. "I wish… I wish… I wish I had my family and friends back!"

Mana, the young magician apprentice studying under Priest Mahado, had the day free of her studies today, and was prancing around, exploring an abandoned marketplace and humming cheerfully. "Hmm, hmm, hmm…" She suddenly heard a shriek of what sounded to her like "Damn it!" in a familiar voice. She peered around the corner and saw Tozokuoh Bakura, the Thief King, looking mad and frustrated, tossing rocks farther down the wall she was hiding behind. She heard him say, "I wish… I wish… I wish I had my family and friends back!" He sat down on a stone bench; a few drops of crystalline water hit the dry rocky ground, and Mana knew he was crying.

Mana sighed a little. "Well, he _did_ say wish…" She walked out from behind the wall. Bakura had his face covered with his hands, and Mana walked quietly, so he neither saw nor heard her approaching. She sat down beside him, putting her elbows on her knees, letting her hands and forearms dangle between her legs. "Hi, Bakura," she said quietly.

He looked up, sniffing. He quickly wiped his eyes, as if he didn't want her to know he'd been crying. "Oh—it's you, that sorceress girl."

"Sorceress-in-training, actually, I still have a lot to learn and perfect. Studying under High Priest Mahado at the palace," she added. "My name's Mana—it means 'magic' in some language, I don't know which one."

"Yeah, Mana, I like that name." He looked away. "What do you want?"

"I heard you shouting, Bakura," she answered. "The swear. And the wish."

"Yeah." Bakura smiled a little. "Heh, bet it'll never come true, though, eh, Mana?"

"Oh, I wouldn't jump to conclusions so quickly," Mana said. She winked at him. "Sometimes life surprises you." She stood up. "Well, Bakura, I better go back to the palace. I don't have training today, but I'd like to be there. Oh, here." She leaned down and wrapped her slender tanned arms around his muscular body. "Bye, Bakura. See you later."

"Bye, Mana." Bakura hugged her back. "Good luck with your spells and everything, I know you'll become a great sorceress."

"Thanks, and bye!" she called backwards, skipping off.

Bakura smiled. "So full of energy. Such a young thing. So sweet and sympathetic, too." He looked up—Ra was beginning to set in the sky, he should go home and rest; Ra was not on the horizon quite yet, but Bakura guessed it was late afternoon, and since he didn't have anything else to do, he was tired, and he needed more sleep, he figured he'd go home and get to sleep. "Well, let's go home," he said to nobody.

_Meanwhile_

Mana raced to Mahado's chambers and knocked on the door. "Master Mahado! Master Mahado!"

Mahado opened the door. "Mana! What a surprise. You know you have no lessons. What is it you would like?"

"May I please borrow your spell book, Master Mahado?"

"Why on earth would you need my spell book, Mana, if I may ask?"

"I need a spell to help a friend, Master."

"Do tell what kind of an incantation you'd need?"

"Well, Master Mahado, I desperately need a spell to grant a wish."

"Just one?" Mahado said, raising an eyebrow.

"Yes, yes, just for my friend."

"Are you _sure_ they wished for it, Mana, before I let you have the spell?"

"Positive, I _heard_ him say 'I wish' and I talked to him for a minute."

"Alright, then, Mana." Mahado disappeared into his room for a moment, then handed his young pupil a scroll. "This is the spell for you, Mana, but mark my words—you must perform it tonight and return it to me tomorrow, and you must not use it in the spirit of evil or wrongdoing." He looked into Mana's aqua eyes with his brown ones. "Understand, Mana?"

"Yes, sir! I'm going to perform it right now, Master Mahado, and I'll have it back by tomorrow morning!" Mana ran back to her own room, clutching the papyrus to her chest.

The high priest closed his door. He sighed and shook his head. "Somehow, I _must_ wonder if what I just did was a good idea…"

Mana looked over the ritual. It had her sit down on the floor, candles burning all around her in a circle. She chanted the spell over and over for five minutes: "_Wish come true, wish be granted, fail me now, no you can't_." She blew out the candles, then put the scroll on her nightstand and whispered to herself before retiring to bed. "Please make Bakura's wish come true… he needs it so bad."


End file.
